Multiple casualties as Daesh stages chlorine gas attacks in Iraq

At least three Iraqis have lost their lives after Daesh terrorists fired mortars containing chemical agents against civilian areas south of Mosul as Iraqi forces press ahead with the large battle to liberate the northern city.

On Saturday night, the Takfiri militants fired 15 mortar shells, some of which filled with chlorine gas, at a village in Sharqat district, located on Tigris River banks 100 kilometers south of Mosul.

An unnamed Iraqi security source told Iraq’s War Media Cell that the victims of the incident were all members of a family. Two others were also wounded in the attack.

The attack comes days after New York-based Human Rights Watch warned against the use of toxic chemicals by Daesh militants in areas near Mosul as the terror outfit is making desperate attempts to keep its last stronghold in Iraq in the face of a large-scale liberation operation there.

“The use of toxic chemicals as a means of warfare is a serious threat to civilians and combatants in and around the embattled city of Mosul, and is a war crime,” HRW said.

Lama Fakih, Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch said the use of such banned arms show “a brutal disregard for human life,” adding that as the terrorists keep fleeing the areas under their control, “they have been repeatedly attacking and endangering the civilians they left behind.”

In another development, two fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units were killed at a bombing in a district situated north of the central city of Ramadi, Iraq’s al-Sumaria news website reported.

The victims were trying to defuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mines planted in a house, according to the report.

Ancient Nimrud freed

On the Mosul battlefield, Iraqi forces managed to fully retake the Nimrud area, home to an ancient Assyrian city which had fallen to Daesh two years ago.

“Troops from the Ninth Armored Division liberated Nimrud … completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings,” read an Iraqi military statement released on Sunday.

During the operation, the Iraqi troops inflicted heavy damage on Daesh.

Nimrud lies some 30 kilometers south of Mosul. The recapture of Nimrud came a few hours after the liberation of the nearby village of Nu’maniyah from Daesh.

Separately, Iraqi army jets carried out airstrikes on a building in Ramadi’s Anah district on Sunday, killing Daesh ringleader Mustafa Mansur al-Ravi along with five other militants.

Iraqi forces patrol a street in the village of Jarif, south of Mosul, on November 12, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Ravi was said to be among Daesh heads in the western Anbar Province and a direct supervisor of bombings and attacks against Iraqi security forces.

Since October 17, the Iraqi army, volunteer Shia and Sunni fighters as well as Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been engaged in an offensive to liberate Mosul, the last Daesh bastion in the Middle Eastern country.

Kurdish forces demolishing Arab homes: HRW

In a relevant development on Sunday, Human Rights Watch accused Iraq’s Kurdish security forces of having illegally destroyed Arab homes in northern Iraq over the past two years in what may amount to a war crime.

The rights group cited in a report the obliteration of homes across 21 towns and villages in Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces between September 2014 and May 2016.

Joe Stork, HRW Deputy Director for Middle East, said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces “destroyed Arab homes – but not those belonging to Kurds – for no legitimate military purpose.”